4:30 AM and sleep is not coming.....

I hate nights like this.  I work all day long, even until way past where I should be relaxing before bed, tired, ready to sleep, but I lay there and nothing happens.  I move in different directions.  Not comfy.  Toss and turn, still no sleep.  I watch all manner of boring shows on TV and Netflix... nada.  Can't wait to see what my Fitbit has to say about this night.

Yesterday was a busy day.  I have been working to get all of the clutter off the floors in the living room and dining room.  Because Winston is a digger dog, the carpet which is 30+ years old and looking it's age,had gotten to look really dirty and flat.  I know that the carpet had not been shampooed since well before Rudy died.... and he has been dead for over 4 years now.  It was way past due.

I finished up getting the last of the stuff put away or moved out of the way, dug out the carpet shampoo machine and went to town.  I started in the dining room and tankful by tankful of warm, soapy water, I cleaned the carpet.  The areas most walked by myself and Winston were horrible.  I put down the cleaning solution and then let it soak in well.  Then I would suck up the dirty... and it was really bad let me tell you.... water, dumping the waste water tank into the toilet.  After the first couple of passes, there was actually mud that settled into the bottom of the waste tank.  Gotta love my digger dog.

Took me most of the day to complete as the spray, soak and suck process took more time than just spraying as it sucked.  The good thing is that this shampoo machine really does a nice job of sucking.  So, while damp, the carpet had pretty well dried in the area first cleaned by the time I was done.  And when I got up Thursday morning, it was dry.  The color is back to the soft brown with areas of lighter yellow/tan.  The loft is back, to a degree with 30+ year old carpet, so is much nicer on bare feet and my white socks did not get dirty just paddling around the house.  It is something I have been trying to get to since I brought all of the stuff here from the Maryland House.

Thursday (yesterday as I write early Friday morning) I did some shopping.  I am in full on prep mode for the Minnesota trip.  I had my list from Brian on hings he and Matt and Janice wanted from Pennsylvania.  So to the beer store for two cases of Yuengling Black & Tan Beer.  Then to Hoe Depot to get a couple of security latches for the basement door (there has been an increase in burglaries in the area and that door was the least secure) plus some 3M hook and loop hangers for the little shelves I am adding to the sewing room basically to give the new camera a higher perch.  The to Walmart for Herr's BBQ chips for Matt, some Tasty Cake Peanut Butter Kandy Cakes for Janice and bread for me.

I had also called the SimpliSafe folks and asked them to bill me for the extra entry sensor.  I am going to put it on the inside door to the sewing room.  I will probably have it open when I am home. but when I am away it will be a fail safe sensor for anyone who might try to break in through the basement.  They are also going to send me a Freeze Sensor, designed to be mounted by the thermostat and will send out an alert if the temperature falls to 41 degrees, giving plenty of time to get a heat source going so pipes do not freeze, as well as a panic button for the bedroom.  The freeze sensor will let me monitor the current temperature inside the house so while I am away, I can see what the internal temperature is to know if the air conditioning or furnace are working inside the house.

So after a snack which eventually served as dinner, I headed to the basement.  I installed the three little cube shelves (pictures will follow someday soon)  and got the camera temporarily set up on tip of one of them with a nice long shot of the room.  The I tacked installing the two extra latches on the door.  One is a ball and loop thing like most hotels have on their doors and one is just a straight latch through a loop.  Since the door is really just a hollow interior door, neither one will hold back a determined thief, but it will slow down one who wants to be quick and quiet about getting in and will make me feel better about leaving the house for long lengths of time when I travel.

Finally, I took the old sensor from the basement door and installed it on the interior door to the sewing room.  The came the "adding a component" to my alarm system process.  The instructions from SimpliSafe had two methods of doing that, one through the Keypad, the other using the remote and my PC.  I opted for the remote/PC combination as it seemed easier.  I followed the directions, the system found the "new/old" sensor which has been named Sewing Room but it was listing the Basement Door sensor as 'open'.  I fussed with the basement door, opening it and closing it to make sure the correct number of flashes were happening on the sensor, but it was still showing 'open' when I decided to call it a day and head to bed.

I went in the kitchen to set the alarm and after pushing the HOME key, nothing happened, except the keypad was now reading that the keypad was out of range.  I found this mildly amusing as the keypad and the base station are now only 7 feet apart so I doubted that they were out of range.  I tried all sorts of things to get the system to work.  Finally I unplugged the base station, counted to ten and plugged it back in.  Suddenly all was working just fine as far as setting the alarm. But it did mention that there was an open door somewhere in the system

Since I am now up, but fading fast I might add at 20 minutes after 5 in the morning, I checked the system, via my PC.  I refreshed the settings by syncing the system and all sensors are showing properly, including the Basement Door which is now showing closed as is the Sewing Room door, so I am feeling all warm and fuzzy, here is my safe house.  Perhaps I can sleep now!